Brussels, Belgium / RankWire.AI / – According to an in-depth analysis published by the European Union research agency Eurofound, the EU is on track to miss its Digital Decade objective of having 20 million ICT specialists by 2030. Despite ongoing multi-year growth in digital jobs, official reports from Emirates News Agency confirm that the shortfall will reach 5 million workers. The report, titled IT Sector in Focus: Evolution of the EU Digital Workforce, highlights that many European nations’ education systems—covering primary and vocational training—are not keeping pace with the current and forecasted needs for digital expertise. As a result, companies increasingly depend on recruiting skilled labor from outside the EU to fill critical staffing gaps.
Despite this projected deficit, employment in Europe’s digital sector has grown significantly over the past decade. Eurofound’s data show that the number of ICT specialists in the EU rose from 5.6 million in 2011 to 10.3 million in 2024, an increase of 81 percent. During the same period, ICT professionals’ share of total employment grew from 3 percent to 5 percent. However, annual growth rates of 7 to 8 percent are still insufficient to reach the 20 million target by 2030.
Regional disparities remain prominent across EU member states. Eurofound reported that in 2024, ICT specialists made up 8.6 percent of total employment in Sweden, 8 percent in Luxembourg, and 7.8 percent in Finland. Meanwhile, in Greece and Romania, digital specialists accounted for only 2.5 percent and 2.8 percent of the workforce, respectively. Growth rates vary widely, with Estonia more than doubling its ICT worker share from 3.4 percent to 7.2 percent between 2011 and 2024, while other countries saw minimal gains during this period.
Educational Gaps Lead to Increased Reliance on International Talent
Surveys across the EU reveal that 57 percent of firms reported significant difficulties filling IT vacancies in 2024. The shortages are most acute in senior engineering roles and specialized fields such as cybersecurity, AI, generative AI, and cloud infrastructure. To bridge these gaps, companies have increasingly recruited from outside the EU, with the proportion of ICT specialists born outside the bloc rising from 9.2 percent in 2021 to 11.9 percent in 2024.
Gender imbalance remains a key challenge limiting Europe’s digital talent pool. Eurofound noted that women accounted for less than one in five ICT specialists across the 27 EU nations in 2024, with a 19 percent share. Additionally, gender pay gaps in the broader ICT sector approached 20 percent in 2022, above the economy-wide average of 13 percent. Underrepresentation of women means European industries operate with less than 75 percent of their potential digital workforce, reducing diversity in technological development.
Core Software Sector Growth Highlights Persistent Skill Gaps
While ICT roles tend to offer above-average pay, advanced skills, and high-quality employment, these factors alone cannot fix the structural labor shortage. With the EU forecast to fall short of its 2030 ICT target by 5 million workers, experts emphasize that addressing this gap will require coordinated policies to enhance domestic education systems and facilitate intra-EU labor mobility. The study incorporated quantitative data and insights from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents and LinkedIn’s Economic Graph.
Policy makers and industry leaders across Europe are under increasing pressure to align national vocational training frameworks with the future needs of the digital economy. Eurofound warns that neglecting domestic training capacity will heighten reliance on foreign talent and threaten broader European digital ambitions. Ongoing reviews aim to expand local training initiatives, boost female participation in tech fields, and maintain the continent’s competitive edge in global technology markets.